Editing Giant (section)

==Literary and cultural analysis==
Giants appear many times in folklore and myths. Representing the human body enlarged to the point of being monstrous, giants evoke terror and remind humans of their body's frailty and mortality. They are often portrayed as monsters and antagonists, but there are exceptions. Some giants intermingle with humans in a friendly way and can even be part of human families with their offspring being portrayed as regular humans where they are often referred to as [[half-giant]]s.<ref name="Weinstock2016">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6H7eCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT494|title=The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters|author=Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock|date=1 April 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-04425-3|page=494}}</ref>

Folklorists and historians examine the role giants are assigned in regional [[Geomythology|geomythologies]]. For example, [[Fionn mac Cumhaill]] is said to have built the [[Giant's Causeway]] on the [[island of Ireland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Geomythology. Giant's Causeway – the mythical stone way |url=https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/ts/2023/01/25/geomythology-giants-causeway-the-mythical-stone-way/ |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=Tectonics and Structural Geology |language=en-GB}}</ref> Per a 1965 examination in an [[American studies]] journal, "It is generally admitted today that [[Paul Bunyan]] was a synthetic figure conceived by advertising men rather than the spontaneous product of the folk mind, yet he has been adopted by the American people with enthusiasm...Paul and his blue ox Babe are supposed to have altered the appearance of the American continent; the animal's hoof prints became the lake beds of the Northwest and from its drinking trough spilled the [[Mississippi River]]."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Flanagan |first=John T. |date=1962 |title=The Impact of Folklore on American Literature |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41155003 |journal=Jahrbuch für Amerikastudien |volume=7 |pages=67–76 |jstor=41155003 |issn=0075-2533}}</ref> Fossilized remains of ancient mammals and reptiles common to the [[Sivalik Hills]] of India may have influenced aspects of the [[Mahābhārata]] that tell of battles in which "hundreds of mighty, and sometimes gigantic, heroes, horses, and [[war elephants]] are said to have died."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Van Der Geer |first1=Alexandra |last2=Dermitzakis |first2=Michael |last3=De Vos |first3=John |date=April 2008 |title=Fossil Folklore from India: The Siwalik Hills and the Mahâbhârata: RESEARCH ARTICLE |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00155870701806225 |journal=Folklore |language=en |volume=119 |issue=1 |pages=71–92 |doi=10.1080/00155870701806225 |issn=0015-587X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>